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Show Editorials Not Again, Calf Governor Calvin L. Rampton in his speech Tuesday evening before the Founder's Day Banquet sounded very much as though he is either planning on raising non-resident tuition at Utah's colleges and universities or elce outlawing out-of-state students entirely. The Governor stated that Utah can no longer afford to subsidize students from outside of the state. The Governor quoted figures showing that it costs Utah $7 million per biennium to educate non-resident students above and beyond the number of students equal to the Utah students who leave the state for their higher education. educa-tion. The Governor continued that Utah cannot continue to allow its desire for bigger and bigger institutions to dram off our ability to provide superior education for our own young people. We agree with the governor that $7 million is a pretty big tab for the state to foot for educating nonresidents. non-residents. But there are several points which the governor has evidently overlooked or would rather forget. First, these students do bring money into the state, Many do not work but receive allowances from home to cover their living expenses. This money is spent for apartments, food and recreation. Perhaps the sales tax from this money is nowhere near $7 million, but it must be a fairly large sum. Thus these students do help stimulate' Utah economy. Secondly, students who come from out-of-state are, to a certain extent, likely to remain here, thus giving Utah the advantage of their education. Utah is one of the few states having a negative migration rate among its college educated students, but students who came from California and other locations must see something in Utah other than being able to live at home and being close to mommy and daddy. This is particularly true of girls, who may well marry Utah natives and stay in the state. But most important is the matter of culture. Utah has a provincial and insular environment. Most of her people were born into families which have been in the state for many generations. Her people have religion as a common denominator. We need the fresh breath of air which students from other states, from other cultures and environments bring to us. This factor is particularly important im-portant to a university where inbreeding of backgrounds and ideas are stultifying and often disasterous. If we price the cost of Utah education too high, as we are already close to doing (non-residents now pay $130 per quarter in addition to resident fees, bringing the total to $255 per quarter in addition to living expenses) we will lose the valuable diversity which makes a truly great university. And to keep this diversity might well be worth $7 million every two years. |
